Are you starting your own business? Have you been reading everything you can get your hands on to help you get started or to grow your business? A local resource that might fit your needs is “Guerrilla Marketing Breakthrough Strategies” by Terry Telford and Jay Conrad Levinson. This book is written in a conversational style as if you are having a coffee at Tim Horton’s with an energetic and passionate business buddy. What I like about this business buddy is that he isn’t afraid to include his personal stories and discuss pitfalls or mistakes we could make. Telford and Levinson’s humanizing of dry stuff promotes your belief in yourself. By the end of the book, you realize that you too can be successful.

Linwood Barclay came to the Kingston Writers Fest to share readings and conversations about the art of writing crime novels. Although he was promoting his recent book, I chose to read his 2010 mystery novel Never Look Away.

Kingston’s Writers Fest was exciting, thought-provoking and rich in talent! This four day event held downtown at the Grand Theatre, Holiday Inn and Queen’s University, reads like a who’s who of writers, sponsors and author patrons. I bought passes to three events and wished I’d gotten more tickets. The Fest has workshops on everything ranging from stories for children and teens to stylistic hints and serious adult topics. I chatted briefly with the Artistic Director Merilyn Simonds and asked her why Kingston was able to get such high calibre talent.

Are you looking to join a women’s book club? Have you attended Community College or University? Do you support equality for women and their life-long learning? If so, the CFUW has a book club you might enjoy! The CFUW literature group meets every fourth Thursday night in members’ homes around Kingston. Members take turns leading discussions and helping to select the books. Recently, I talked with members to find out what they are currently reading.

New Year’s is a time of reflection and commitment to one’s life destiny. In Kingston East, as we all vow to eat less (I’m done with turkey), exercise more (a run on Greenwood’s paths!) or get that project started (think we could park 2 cars in the garage?), we also share a unique appreciation of our soldiers whose New Year’s vows include keeping Canada safe.

As Canadians, we have grown up with small town and prairie literature, reading the likes of Stephen Leacock and W.O. Mitchell. In Dewey, we can relate to the vastness of the Iowa landscape, the comic relief of a cat with character and the resilience of individuals in tough economic circumstances. This Christmas, be inspired by this 1980’s to 90’s tale of library cat Dewey who charms the rough prairie town of Spencer during America’s biggest Agricultural crisis since the Dirty Thirties Dust Bowl. Vicki Myron’s story is interesting because she includes historical and regional facts as well as revelations of personal tragedy. Iowans are people we feel we know.

At Kingston’s Writers Fest, Lisa Moore wrote in my book, “For Alison, the engineer – I hope this rings true. Best wishes, Lisa Moore.” My neighbour Alison studied the 1982 Ocean Ranger disaster in her Chemical Engineering class and asked to read Moore’s novel when I finished. Alison, like many other Canadians, read the Royal Commission Report of how all 84 men on the oil rig had died, of how their safety had been needlessly compromised, resulting in significant changes across Canada in the aftermath. Lisa Moore’s novel is a moving story of how this disaster affected the lives of Newfoundlanders for decades.

Steven Galloway writes, “Civilization isn’t a thing that you build and then there it is, you have it forever. It needs to be built constantly, recreated daily.” In The Cellist of Sarajevo, this is exactly what each of the characters tries to do in the midst of civil war. They try to recreate their old existence under terrible circumstances. Every day, the characters attempt to go about their daily tasks not knowing if they will be killed by a sniper or bomb blast. As their spirit deteriorates, it is the simple gesture of a cellist, playing an adagio at a bomb site that brings back their grace and humanity.

She was a mistress to Louis XIV, the charming Sun King of France, who put Versailles on the international map. Louise de la Valliere was a poor, but spirited young woman who won his heart. Her bright mind, lovely looks and talent as a horse whisperer captured Louis just after his marriage to a Spanish princess.

Imagine life as a coloured maid in 1960’s Jackson, Mississippi. How would it feel to raise white babies who love you but grow into the demanding employers that maintain racial segregation? What if one white lady gave you a chance to tell your story? Would you brave the possibly violent repercussions? Kathryn Stockett tells such a story. She weaves the voices of three women telling the same tale from different vantage points.